SpaceX Will Launch Private Mars Missions as Soon as 2018

The commercial spaceflight company SpaceX announced on Twitter today that it plans to send its robotic Dragon capsule to Mars as early as 2018. “Red Dragons will inform the overall Mars architecture,” SpaceX representatives tweeted today (April 27), referring to the company’s eventual plans to set up a colony on Mars — a key goal of SpaceX and its founder, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.